The 2016 UAA Swimming and Diving Championships were hosted at UR from Feb. 17–20 at the Webster Aquatic Center.
Though UR’s athletes may have struggled on the aggregate totals, with the men finishing seventh and the women finishing sixth overall, a handful of individuals had notable successes this past weekend.
On the men’s side, sophomore diver Max Adler finished fourth on the one-meter board with a score of 430.50, qualifying him for the NCAA Division III Zone Diving Championship at SUNY Cortland this week.
“I’m very excited that I was able to make the qualification, and definitely was not expecting it,” Adler said.
For divers, postseason competition is often about hitting your stride when it matters most.
“The UAA competition where I made the qualification score was definitely the best meet I have had all season,” Adler said, “and my coach had definitely been helping me get into peak shape.”
So is it time for Adler to crank up the heat on a blitz for the finish? No, actually. “Before big competitions, the divers taper, or do less dives before the competition, in order to have our full energy and strength to do our best,” the sophomore explained.
While Adler is looking forward, a couple of UR swimmers had athletic officials looking back into the record books, as some history had to be re-written.
Freshman Elliot Schwinn broke a 27-year-old school record on the third day of the UAA Championships. With a time of 4:09.24 in the 400 individual medley, Schwinn was almost a full second faster than the previous UR record held by Derek Brennan, who clocked a time of 4:10.17 back in 1989. Schwinn also broke his own record in the 1,650 freestyle.
On the women’s side, junior Alex Veech, like Schwinn, broke a record of her own. Veech finished with a time of 1:03.29 in the 100 breaststroke, surpassing her previous record of 1:04.16 and narrowly missing out on a win. She took second place, finishing just .21 seconds behind Emory’s Lizzy Aronof.
“My goal this year was to break a 1:04 in the 100 breast, and, before finals at UAAs, I remember saying to myself how badly I wanted it,” Veech said. “I had to double check which lane I swam in because I just didn’t believe that it happened.”
Veech will compete in Nationals (NCAAs) in Greensboro, North Carolina from March 16-19. She now returns to training with the coaches through spring break until the NCAAs, where she will seat ninth in the country for the 100 breaststroke.
“It seems like a lot of pressure going into the competition, but honestly I’m just gonna have fun with it and see what happens,” Veech said.
Junior diver Danielle Neu won the three-meter board competition, and, in doing so, became the first female UR diver to capture a UAA title. Neu is the first UR swimmer or diver to win a UAA individual championship since 2004, when Karen Gromer won the 200 butterfly.
